Thankless Thanksgiving

 

This hasn't been the best year, so I wasn't surprised when I checked with my various regular Thanksgiving dinner guests to find out that everyone had other plans. My overall luck of late hasn't been terribly good, and I've found that expecting the worst tends to dull the edge of constant disappointment -- a little bit. I've also gotten to the point where I'm just sick of the whole "bad turn of the Karma wheel," as I like to call it. It's time to spit in the face of the fates and decide I'm not going to be miserable no matter how crappy things are.

So I went ahead and ordered a nice, organic, free-range turkey from the local market, Westridge Market in Ojai. I got the smallest one they had. I made sure we had all the sides, although I cut back and only included the ones Rob and I really like. We also cleaned the dining room and I put out our festive Thanksgiving settings. I did cut back a bit. I only baked one pie, not the usual three. I only made one kind of cranberry sauce, instead of the normal two.

Dena told us she would be able to come over later -- she got off work around 7 p.m. in L.A., so she'd be here around 8. She had stopped by earlier and she told me she wanted some collard greens. I love collards green made with salt pork, but I know enough about them to convert them to a vegetarian version. Dena also loves sweet potatoes, so I got some. But because she was coming so late, we decided to eat earlier. In fact, Rob would prefer to eat around 1 p.m., while I insist on eating around 5 p.m. I'm the cook, so guess who wins that argument.

Rob and I decided we were going to make the meal a Big Deal even if it was just the two of us. Rob scrubbed the dining room. I managed to make all the sides, despite the fact that my bad foot is still quite tender. We had our usual turkey and stuffing (cornbread, almonds, celery, dried cranberries and currants). Rob is only interested in corn, turkey and mashed potatoes. He really doesn't like gravy, but it isn't Thanksgiving without a good giblet gravy for me, so that's what I made. So in addition to the mashed potatoes, we had creamed onions, turnips roasted in the turkey fat and sprinkled with rosemary, green beans with toasted almonds and pureed summer squash. Oh yeah, I also had some Rhodes rolls.

Dinner was ready at 5 on the Dot, which makes Rob happy -- well as happy as he can be not having his crack of Noon meal. We sat down to our full plates. Up til then, we really had been working on cheering each other up. But when we got to the actual meal the loneliness was crushing and we both lost our enthusiasm. I guess while other people count dollars in their bank account or karats in their rings, we count friends and family as our treasure and we were feeling quite depleted this year. So we finished our food in silence and I went to lie down, while Rob cleaned the kitchen.

Soon the phone rang and it was Gen of the comedy duo Gen and Sean, or Seanifer. They wanted to let us know that they missed us -- they go up to Gen's family Thanksgiving in Paso Robles -- about a three-hour drive each way, every few years and eat out at a restaurant. Then Tressa came over followed by Dena. I got up and made Dena her collard greens, which came out great. I also made the sweet potatoes with pecans, maple syrup and orange and served her the creamed onions she'd been hankering, along with green beans, squash and rolls. A friend of Tressa's came over and we sat around and chatted until almost 11 p.m.

No one had had any room for the pumpkin right after dinner so Rob and I had some after they left. Note to self: The King Arthur flour white whole wheat flour does NOT make a good pie crust, stick with unbleached. We both were in much better spirits. That's all we need, we decided, just someone to come by and hang out with us for a while and we're both happy. It's not that we don't enjoy each other's company, but we've been together so long, we've replayed conversations to death. Rob isn't one for idle chatter, and actually I find I'm not a big fan either, which is odd because I used to be such a chatterbox. It's nice to sit around with other people and just connect over a good meal.

Overall, it turned out to be a very lovely Thanksgiving and although it's been a bit rough here lately, we still have a great deal to be thankful for.

Vegetarian (vegan) collard greens

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds collard greens. stems removed and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces -- roll the leaves and cut across in strips, then chop the strips.
3 shallots, chopped
1 quart vegetable broth
Tabasco sauce to taste (you can also use dried red pepper flakes)
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven and add the shallots, cook until translucent and add greens. Saute in the oil until the greens wilt. Add broth and salt and pepper and cover and cook for about 20 minutes. Add Tobasco to taste and cook and additional 10 minutes or until somewhat soft, but with some crunch.

 

Turkey talk

One thing I started thinking about was the evolution of the Thanksgiving turkey preparation over the years.

When I was a kid, we always bought frozen turkeys. That was all they seemed to have. It was always a big deal to defrost them on time, but in those days it was no big deal to leave them out until they were thawed. They were always filled with stuffing, which was made with eggs added and the stuffing stayed in the bird for days, or until the carcass disappeared. I think the reason so few got food poisoning from the stuffing then was because it got so nasty and gross so fast, no one would venture to try it.

Then in my 20s, we discovered that fresh birds were far superior. They were a specialty at first, and I always had to track them down. By this time, people had figured out that defrosting meat on the counter wasn't such a great idea and the turkey had to be defrosted in the refrigerator, which took days. But since I'd moved on to fresh turkey, it was OK by me.

A few years later, though I heard tell of a new-fangled kind of "best turkey," the free-range bird, which had lived a happy turkey life wandering around eating feed, not a horrible, crammed in pens and de-beaked existence. Plus they were supposed to taste better. Again, they were rare at first, but gained in popularity and soon I was fighting to get mine every year.

Now we're up to "heirloom' turkeys, which are supposed to hearken back to the breeds of yore when a turkey "tasted like a turkey (??????). Although I'm convinced it's all about making us spend more money on the turkey because I really haven't noticed a great deal of difference in the free range or heirloom brands.

We also obsess about food safety. Most experts say not to even stuff a turkey, because of food safety concerns. If you do, get the stuffing out right away. Also make sure to refrigerate the bird quickly to stave off illness. No leaving it on the counter for 5 hours, which my parents used to do.

Turkey preparation has also evolved. My parents stuck the thing in a roasting pan and let 'er rip. Then we had to use racks. The latest thing is brining. Every time you turn on the Food Channel, someone is talking about the joys of soaking the bird and all the magazines have brining tips.

I've found brining to be a logistical nightmare, especially if it's a really big bird. I bought a "brining sack" at Sur La Table a few years back and tried to put the turkey and the water in it and place it in a pan, but it leaked all over the place and was useless. This year I brined the bird by placing one cup of kosher salt (BTW did you know kosher means the meat is already brined? I didn't, but it's true), one lemon and herbs de provence along with enough water to fill up the roasting pan with the turkey in it. I flipped the bird every four hours for about 16 hours and then dried it off and let it sit on a rack that I had propped off the ground with aluminum foil, overnight, because the Chinese always air dry their poultry to get crispy skins. (You heard it here first, air drying is going to be the Next Rage).

The turkey came out great, moist and tasty. I need to brine because I tend to overcook the turkey a bit because I really really don't like underdone poultry.

Isn't it odd that as time goes on food becomes less and less safe? You'd think it should be the other way around.